AL Kennedy

Alison Kennedy is doing quite well for herself. Well enough, certainly, that the best-selling author needn’t concern herself with the murky and possibly ill-rewarded world of stand-up unless it’s for very good reason. She acknowledges the novelty in being a ‘typist who does stand-up’ (a transition on the scale of ‘polar bear works in Tesco’), and her career shift is written all over her show.

Kennedy projects a perfectly-pitched image of being an awkward, mumsy and somewhat sexually needy do-gooder thrust uncomfortably from study onto stage. Both the delivery and material (smear tests, Guantanamo Bay and masturbating cats) are confident and individual, and - while there might be a book in it some day - you won’t be wishing you had read one of her novels instead as you enjoy a great Fringe debut. (David Pollock)